Iraq POW's dad: Bergdahl trade a 'bad deal'

Jun. 4, 2014
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At the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, Keith Maupin, father of Army Sgt. Matt Maupin, who was captured by insurgents in Iraq
10 years ago and later killed, offers his opinion on the Saturday release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. / Gary Landers, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Cindy Schroeder, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Cindy Schroeder, The Cincinnati Enquirer

UNION TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- The father of a Ohio soldier who was kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents and later killed says last weekend's trade of five senior Taliban commanders for America's only prisoner of war in Afghanistan was "a bad deal."

Keith Maupin said Saturday's exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in 2009, sends the message that the U.S. "is willing to make trades with terrorists."

"A lot of people say we've traded prisoners before, but these guys aren't prisoners of war," Maupin said of the five Taliban commanders. "These guys are no more than war criminals. They're murderers."

Maupin spoke to The Enquirer at his Yellow Ribbon Support Center in Union Township, where he and other volunteers have shipped about 22,000 care packages to U.S. troops since his son's 2004 capture.

The care packages all have stickers with Matt Maupin's picture, as well as stickers bearing Bergdahl's photo and the message, "Captured in Afghanistan 6-30-09. Please help find me."

"I'm thinking I'm just going to make me some stickers and put across them 'traded,' " Maupin said Wednesday. "Or maybe I'll just put Matt's sticker over (Bergdahl's)."

Bergdahl was delivered to U.S. forces Saturday in exchange for five high-ranking Afghan Taliban detainees who'd been held at a U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Maupin's son, Army Sgt. Matt Maupin, was captured April 9, 2004, when insurgents ambushed his fuel convoy near Baghdad.

His family responded by starting the Yellow Ribbon Support Center and doing countless interviews to ensure that the 24-year-old soldier wasn't forgotten.

For years, the Maupin family believed Matt Maupin would come home alive. Those hopes were dashed on March 30, 2008, when the U.S. military told his parents that they had found the young soldier's remains.

Last month, Keith Maupin talked to the judge presiding over his son's case in Iraq, where a man in custody, who U.S. officials say confessed to his son's killing, has not yet been given a trial date.

"This is the first time that any Iraqi has been charged with killing an American solider," Keith Maupin said. "It's my job to make sure that Matt's not forgotten. But it's all our jobs to make sure that none of our (troops) are forgotten."

Maupin said he never would have agreed to a trade for his own son had one been proposed.

"You just don't negotiate with terrorists," he said.

President Barack Obama and his top aides have said they did the right thing by arranging to get Bergdahl home as the war in Afghanistan winds down.

But the swap for Bergdahl, a soldier from Idaho, raised concerns among some lawmakers that it would make U.S. soldiers and civilians more likely to be taken hostage.

Bergdahl left his unit five years ago for unknown reasons.

Debate is swirling around the nature of Bergdahl's capture, whether he deserted his unit before he was taken, but Maupin said he's willing to let the Army decide that issue in court.

"If he's found guilty of desertion in a combat zone, he needs to pay the price," Maupin said. "But if he didn't do it, that boy's going to be one hell of a hero."